News of POWs 1943 and 6 degrees of Separation!

18 Feb 2018

The below news printed on 11 October 1943 mentions young West Australians serving overseas, many of who are POWs of the Japanese. This shows us how small the population was at that time (about 400,000). The story mentions Arthur Bancroft from HMAS Perth and many 2/4th men – including Allan Bamford WX8485, Ken Skinner WX9282, Basil Clarke WX9136, Lloyd Ashbolt WX17251, Cyril Fogarty WX7709, Jack Edward Smith WX12252, Jim Scott WX12949 and Ted Hardey WX12157.

When given the rare opportunity to write a card to their family, the men would nearly always include names of men known to his family in an attempt to pass information to those at home. The POWs had no way of knowing if their Japanese printed cards ever reached WA or whether their families knew anything of their existence.